Religious Broadcast: A study of the impact on children with a special reference to Christian programmes

Television has been a subject of discussion ever since it was introduced in 1959 in India as an experimental service. In present media scenario, 24×7 hours private satellite and cable channels are mushrooming everyday as informational, educational (news and current affairs) and entertainment (cinema, music, lifestyles) channels. Among these escalations in recent days, exclusive religious channels have also emerged in India; a multi-religious country. The contents of channels, portrayals of lifestyles and cultures that are foreign to the local culture demanded their influences.
In India, television became a significant form of social communication and that brings a major influence in the lives of children. There are numbers of studies that have come out on the influences and impacts created by commercial TV shows and entertainment TV channels on children. There are complaints of parents that they are unable to control what their children watch or how much they watch (Sunderaj Victor: 2006). Today ‘Religious Television’ is at a crossroad in its development in India. In a diverse religiosity country like India, it does not have many studies on the impact of religious TV programmes.
The present paper analyses the social, moral, religious and cultural changes among children who watch religious TV programmes. The study paper is administered with a survey method using questionnaires for children and parents separately with an application of ‘uses and gratifications’ theory. The results show that the religious contents for kids provide different kinds of gratifications to different types of viewers based on their diverse living situations.

Keywords: Religious TV, Kids shows, children, motives, behaviour

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